For Reservations Call The Maine Saltwater Fishing Hotline 207-691-0745

For Reservations Call The Maine Saltwater Fishing Hotline 207-691-0745

Maine Saltwater Fishing Reports Blog

Welcome to the Fish Blog & saltwater fishing reports page of TIDE CHASER GUIDE SERVICE & Capt. George Harris. We're looking forward to providing you with the most up to date inshore saltwater fishing reports on the Maine coast as the Maine Striper Fishing season goes forward into 2019!!! You wont find any generic"cut & paste" reports or info here...Just pure fishing!!!

TIDE CHASER provides friendly, professional guided fly & light tackle fishing trips.
We operate our fishing TRIPS in the Mid-Coast region of Maine, from Casco Bay to Penobscot Bay. This area features an astonishing 1000 miles of jagged, pristine coastline. We focus our efforts on the broad reach of the lower Kennebec river estuary & the outer boundaries of Casco Bay...with its countless thousands of acres of untouched saltwater flats, gnarly tides that rip over rocky structure and an intricate maze of backcountry channels, It's a fly & light tackle fishermans nirvana. On any given day we can be found fishing sandy beaches, ocean front ledges, coastal tide marshes or shallow hard bottom flats. Wherever the fish are!!! Whether it's on the fly...pitching plugs or live lining frisky live baits we've got you covered check out our website for all of our trip offerings...and stay tuned for some new trips options for 2019

Welcome to Maine's #1 Striper Fishing Blog with Capt. George Harris Call 207-691-0745

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Tide Chaser Guide Service Midcoast Maine's premier fly & light tackle guide service, fishing for Striped Bass, Mackerel & Bluefish , i~ USCG 100 Ton Master ~ Registered Maine Tidewater Guide ~ For reservations call 207-691-0745 ~

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Maine Striper Fishing With Capt George Harris & Super Fly Charters: Kennebec Report July 30th, 2011

( 07/29/11 Joel Morgan with a 43" nearly 30 pound Striped Bass that he caught in 2' of water in bright afternoon sun...for those who think that big Stripers only feed at night....you'd better think again!!!)
With the warm river temps we have changed some of our tactics and some of the habitat that we are fishing...usually during the heat of summer we do exceptionally well fishing the cooler water that flows over deep structure...which was the case from mid june to mid july...recently, during the last couple of weeks, we have been finding most of our fish in shallow water....this time of year crabs are prime forage and they are easy prey for the stripers that cruise the sand, mud and grass flats. over the past couple of weeks we have slowly made the adjustments from deepwater to shallow and it has paid off with some impressive fish to the boat...

also when the conditions are right we have had some pretty cool sight casting opportunities that have resulted in some amazingly explosive strikes that will not soon be forgotten by my anglers

I'm also proud to announce that "Super Fly Charters" was named one of the very best Charter Fishing Tour Companies in the State of Maine by the Portland Press Heralds "Peoples Choice Awards" as seen in todays (07/31/11) Portland Press Herald...A big thank you to all of my guests for helping to make my business so successful..Please rest assured that we will continue to work hard everyday to put our anglers in front of fish and give them an amazing Maine saltwater fishing experience!!!

for reservations & availability please call 207-691-0745

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Maine Striper Fishing Kennebec Report July 28th, 2011

The Striper fishing continues to be good on the Kennebec and it's surrounding waters...The water has warmed up to typical mid summer temps so we have shifted some of our tactics and locations to take advantage of cooler ocean waters. During the past week we have found fish over a broad area and an even broader range of habitat...from shallow sand flats to marsh areas with mud bottoms to rocky current...the common theme in all of these areas has been how we have been getting the fish to eat...
The fish are well fed and happy so patience has been critical to get the hook ups...unlike June and early July when hungry fish were migrating into our waters and had the feedbag on...the fish that we are fishing over now are lazy. Live baits and the choicest of chunk baits has been a deadly tactic for us when working the flats...
I'm thinking that for the next 2-4 weeks we will continue to see the same feeding patterns before the water cools and the fish start to gorge themselves in preparation for the fall run migration...Speaking with a number of guides and anglers lately it seems like the ones who've changed up their tactics have continued to score some nice fish...the guys who continue to use the same early/late season techniques are suffering the typical "dog day blues"

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Maine Saltwater Fishing Reports, Guided Trips & Charters July 23rd, 2011

The Dog Days Of Summer Have Arrived...below is a photo of a a fish that Paul Lombardo caught today (7/23/11)...a nice 33 incher that clobbered a live mack...fish are in their mid summer feeding patterns and they are well fed...The huge amount of bait that is around is keeping them happy...Most of my fishing is taking place on the Kennebec...the fish are spread thoughout most of that system and it's not unusual for us to be fishing an area during a morning tide and then be on fish 10 miles away during the afternoon evening tide...reports from casco bay have been mixed...decent action on the right tides and during low light conditions...pretty typical of striped bass...As the river warms up I will be shifting some of my focus to areas of cooler water along the ocean front and bays...that said....we will still be working the rips heavily during peak tidal flows...fishing deep current is the backbone of the kennebec fishery...The flats have good numbers of striped bass pushing up over them on certain tides and if the conditions are right you can clearly see them sucking crabs off the bottom...if you want to try to catch one of those shallow water stripers on the fly or with light tackle...bring your "A" game and a bottle of aspirin for the headaches that those fish can dish out...feeding them tasty natural morsels makes the game alot easier...but often patience is still required to chum them into range...

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Maine Striper Fishing Kennebec River 2011


Maine Saltwater Fishing Hotline...For LIVE Maine Striper fishing reports or for charter reservations for the Kennebec River: Call or text message 207-691-0745 We've Cracked The Code & Have The Fish Dialed In So Dial Us Up!!!


Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Maine Striper Fishing Report July 12th, 2011

The daily report will be easy today...Kory, Kade (sp) & Bill joined me for a 6:00am departure from Bath...We ran out into the fog shrouded bay for livies...a 3-5 foot gently rolling swell made it interesting...After we blackened the live wells with macks...We hammered back into the river and started SLAYING the Stripers during the incoming tide...We are dialed in on the fish...take advantage of it while it's hot!!!















Maine Saltwater Fishing Hotline...For LIVE Maine Striper fishing reports or for charter reservations for the Kennebec River: Call or text message 207-691-0745 As You Can See from Our Reports...We've Cracked The Code & Have The Fish Dialed In On ALL of Their Habitats...Rips, Beaches, Marshes and Flats...Whether you prefer light tackle or fly fishing...Dial Us Up!!!

Monday, July 11, 2011

Maine Striper Fishing Report July 11th, 2011

Today Charlie & Laura from Dallas, TX were aboard for some Striped Bass fishing...Charlie had fished landlocked stripers before in the lakes of Texas but never before in a tidal situation...we started the day at around 5:30am with a run out to the bay to fill the livewells...once that was accomplished I headed back into the river to catch the last of the incoming tide which was still ripping...our first stop proved to be very productive...fat linesiders came over the rail steadily...as the tide went slack we were confronted with a lull in the action but as the out going tide slowly built steam we began scoring fish...the tempo of our hook-ups would increase as the tidal torrent increased...fish after fish smashed our macks into oblivion...I wanted to hit one last spot and it took one drift for the grand finale double header hook up to put an exclamation point on our day...Nice job today Charlie & Laura...fun when you can leave them biting!!!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Maine Striper Fishing Report: Kennebec River July 9th, 2011

Striped Bass continue to pour into Maine's Kennebec river...On the flats they can be found scouring the bottom for crustaceans...crabs, shrimp etc...clear water will allow for some amazing sight casting opportunities with fly and light tackle, but be aware sight fishing is not a big numbers game...you'll get your shots and if you present your offering correctly you'll be rewarded..In a previous report i mentioned that we have wading opportunities...this is legit and can take the game to a whole new level...On the ledges & in the rips...It's a different story, we are absolutely slaying fish using live baits...very fun and exciting to drift through a rip only to have hefty striped bass hammer your baits time after time...Early morning has given us some decent topwater action with pop up mini blitzes...no sustained surface feeds though, rather structure oriented ambush attacks...Fun Stuff when they crush the lure when it's least expected!!!















Maine Saltwater Fishing Hotline...For LIVE Maine Striper fishing reports or for charter reservations for the Kennebec River: Call or text message 207-691-0745 As You Can See from Our Reports...We've Cracked The Code & Have The Fish Dialed In On ALL of Their Habitats...Rips, Beaches, Marshes and Flats...Whether you prefer light tackle or fly fishing...Dial Us Up!!!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Maine Striper Fishing Kennebec River Report July 7th, 2011 Sight Fishing The Flats!!!


Maine Saltwater Fishing Hotline...For LIVE Maine Striper fishing reports or for charter reservations for the Kennebec River: Call or text message 207-691-0745 As You Can See from Our Reports...We've Cracked The Code & Have The Fish Dialed In On ALL of Their Habitats...Rips, Beaches, Marshes and Flats...Whether you prefer light tackle or fly fishing...Dial Us Up!!!



















07/07/2011 Two fly fishing trips today and although we didn't post big numbers of fish like my popular live baiting trip slayfests, it was still a blast...1st up Departing at 430am My early morning 4hr trip was spent working the heavy current areas of a strong outbound tide...we found success while working a small shallow cove that the ebbing tide was boring straight into...the force of the raging tide trapping the bait in the shallows...Often the presence of fish is indicated by a single gull hovering intently...this was exactly the clue that immediately caught my attention...closer inspection confirmed the presence of feeding stripers...A few minutes later, working over a brief pop up surface feed, my angler got tight to a fish in one of the most explosive top water strikes from a striped bass that I've seen this season...gotta love it when you get moderately foggy overcast conditions...the Stripers get hyper aggressive...

Trip two was a 5hr trip departing mid morning at 10:00am, most of the tide had already left so we started by working the edges of an expansive hard bottom flat...setting up a drift along the edge of a 100 yard long gravel bar, it didn't take long before we started seeing large stripers cruising over the light colored bottom...Mark was in the bow of the boat with a topwater offering while Jerry was in the stern of the boat throwing my deadly two beer clouser...(It's a fly that I don't start tying till I've had at least two beers) It's basically a sparse 2" clouser tied black over lavender over white with no flash and it's absolutely deadly when allowed to settle to the bottom and twitched in a manner that leaves little puffs of sand as it's skipped across bottom. As mark worked the surface...he had several follows but no eat....one particular follow I had Jerry lay the "two beer fly" right in behind the topwwater and had him let it sink to the bottom in two feet of water...one twitch of the fly sealed the deal as a fat 29" Striper boiled on the fly & took Jerry into the backing on his van staal c-vex reel...The bright sun over the light colored bottom of the flats made sighting fish a breeze...the fish were clearly grubbing crabs off the bottom every time they rolled on a crab you would see their white bellies and silvery sides followed by a large mud cloud where they had just fed...In an effort to keep my, think outside the box, "freestyle angling" philosophy alive..I actually had my angler hop out of the boat, at one point, and wade the edge of a large sandbar that had large striped bass hanging just off it's edge in 18" of water...
This style of fishing is not a big numbers game like some of my other trips and it's not for everyone but half of the fun is in the challenge...long leaders and tiny flies coupled with patience and stealth are often the requirements needed to crack the code...If you're thinking about trying this style of fishing please get in touch with me..We're getting into the time of year when the water is warming up which makes wet wading an excellent method for fly & light tackle anglers to quietly slip up on the hard bottom shallow water stripers. There is nothing more primal than stalking your quarry in gin clear shallow water on foot!!!..For anglers wishing to wet wade, bring along a good pair of sandals like the ones produced by Columbia, Keen or Teva or "flats specific" wading shoes such a the Patagonia "Marlwarkers" or Simms "Flats Sneakers"...or on a budget an old pair of "Chuck Taylor" Converse All Stars will work as good as anything...

Good stuff just keeps on happening at Super Fly Charters!!!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Maine Saltwater Fishing Charters Kennebec Reports July, 2011


Maine Saltwater Fishing Hotline...For LIVE Maine Striper fishing reports or for charter reservations for the Kennebec River: Call or text message 207-691-0745 We've Cracked The Code & Have The Fish Dialed In So Dial Us Up!!!


Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Maine Striper Fishing Kennebec River Report July 5th, 2011

Maine Saltwater Fishing Hotline...For LIVE Maine Striper fishing reports or for charter reservations for the Kennebec River: Call or text message 207-691-0745 We've Cracked The Code & Have The Fish Dialed In So Dial Us Up!!!

(John Fielding & Dave Roberts are stoked with one of five double headers caught in a very short time period!!!)





















This Morning I had John Fielding Back aboard, for my regular readers, you'll remember that John fished with me back on June 23rd in cold, wet conditions...today would be a much different day!!! A "Graceful Recovery" Would Not Be Needed!!!...With John this time was his good friend Dave Roberts...The day started for me at 2:00 am when I tumbled out of bed, crawled down the stairs and into the kitchen for a few cups of the worlds strongest coffee and a weather check...Thick fog had plagued us yesterday and it looked like today would be the same...very fishable just not in the way that I had game planned for, kind of like yesterdays fog fest...By 3:00am I was in the truck and headed to the launch for a 4:30am meeting with John & Dave...Trying to adjust my game plan while driving through dungeon thick fog the whole way to the boat ramp was not what I wanted to be thinking about...The guys arrived right on time, shortly after I had splashed the boat and they were very upbeat and eager to hop aboard which gave me an instant shot of energy...With the heavy fog I thought that making the run to black out the livewell with Macks was not good a good idea so instead, I ran to sheldons, "honor system", bait dock for some live Eels...Eels make for good Striper bait...but they are what every Tom, Dick & Harry on the river uses...I like to blaze my own trail and go to great lengths to procure the best. I love working my way through the food chain like an apex predator using nothing but the choicest hand picked live baits to ignite a feeding frenzy...A true live bait connoissuer you might say!!!...
Leaving sheldons dock with a tank full of snakes, it became apparent that the fog was clearing so we changed gears back to the original plan and with our hearts full of joy, we hammered down river & out into the Bay for some live Macks...aka Striper Crack...I always like to take my time when loading the livewells because I know how effective they are...Stripers go completely bonkers for them...And as it would turn out...the time we spent making bait would pay off bigtime...After heading back into the river we were met by a perfect, hard running outbound tide...I ignored tons of fishy water as I cruised upriver into the raging currents to a spot that has been holding good numbers of Striped Bass for weeks now...I think it took us one or two drifts to get into a groove...It was an all out bailfest after that...drift after drift, it was rods torqued way over by powerful Stripers...hook up after hook up came steadily before the tide floundered & so did our bait supply...I was so happy for my anglers today...they got to see Maine Striper Fishing at its finest!!!

Monday, July 4, 2011

Maine Striper Fishing Kennebec Report July 4th, 2011

Maine Stripers Report July 4th 2011...Had Jan Leth & Dennis Hansen aboard again...I have guided Jan numerous times and Dennis has been aboard 2-3 times...we didn't slay them this morning but landed on the fish right away had a blast out there chasing Stripers in the fog...It was a bit too foggy to make the morning livebait dash... so we tried for some action on the fly and scored....Also played around with my camera and got some cool B&W photos of Dennis...

















Maine Saltwater Fishing Hotline...For LIVE Maine Striper fishing reports or for charter reservations for the Kennebec River: Call or text message 207-691-0745 We've Cracked The Code & Have The Fish Dialed In So Dial Us Up!!!

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Maine Striper Fishing With Capt George Harris & Super Fly Charters: Kennebec Report July 3rd, 2011

The Kennebec River is the BEST place in Maine to get your Striped Bass fix...BAR NONE!!!



This Maine saltwater fishing report will be brief..We are slaying the fish during peak current flows and even during the slack tides...Live baiting with Macks has been super effective...the stripers are simply going bonkers over them. We have been doing two trips daily and have room on the schedule to do a third trip daily..and as you can see we are on the fish!!!
We have some great upcoming tides available. The Kennebec is a unique body of water that features lots of deepwater structure and rips so targeting fish during the middle of the day even in bright sun is not much of a challenge as longs as we hit moving water...either incoming or out going tides..
Maine Saltwater Fishing Hotline...For LIVE Maine Striper fishing reports or for charter reservations for the Kennebec River: Call or text message 207-691-0745 We've Cracked The Code & Have The Fish Dialed In So Dial Us Up!!!

Friday, July 1, 2011

Maine Saltwater Fishing With Super Fly Charters: Kennebec River Report July 1st, 2011

Maine Saltwater Fishing Hotline...For LIVE Maine Striper fishing reports or for charter reservations for the Kennebec River: Call or text message 207-691-0745 We've Cracked The Code & Have The Fish Dialed In So Dial Us Up!!!



















Kennebec River Striped Bass fishing report July 1st 2011...Today I had the Lee family from Michigan aboard...Departing the dock on the Kennebec River in Bath at 6:00am we hustled down river to and out to the mouth of Sheepcot Bay to fill the livewell with Macks...It took abit of time but we eventually loaded up...It was flat calm so I hammered back to the west out along the beaches to the mouth of the Kennebec river...The tide was just starting to flood so I set to work on my game plan the first stop had little current moving so I abandoned that spot and ran to the next area that has just been covered up in hungry Stripers...It took one drift for the tide to swing and from that point it was basically a non stop slayfest!!! At each stop we landed on fish...Single, Double and triple hook ups each time we slid through the rips time and time again...Fat ocean bright stripers came over the rail one after the other...This would continue till roughly noon when we had exhausted our supply of live macks...With both of my thumbs bleeding from lipping raspy jawed Stripers and the Lee family content...we called it a day and headed back to the dock!!!

We cruised through the month of June in full stride a great month of fish for sure but now that we are into July the game has changed & we are now in prime time fishing!!!